The levels of extra mortgage payments being made across Australia is 'suprisingly low' a new report has found.

A new report from Fitch Ratings has played down the extent to which Australian home owners are rushing to pay back their banks, saying the average increase in voluntary home loan repayments has been modest.

As part of the long-running debate about household debt, the Reserve Bank and commercial lenders say a key source of strength for households is the fact many are ahead on their mortgages.

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This means that if unemployment were to spike, many borrowers would have a ''buffer'' against defaulting on their loan.

However, research published today found the average borrowers' extra mortgage payments were ''surprisingly low'' and had only increased slightly since the global financial crisis.

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The paper, by analysts led by James Zanesi, found the average borrower is paying about 1.5 to 2 per cent more of their loan principal than required each year.

For instance, if the minimum mortgage repayment schedule required them to pay off $4,000 in principal in a year, the average borrower would pay back an extra $2,500 to $3,500 a year.

Mr Zanesi said this ''partial prepayment rate'' had not changed dramatically since the global financial crisis, aside from temporary lifts after cuts in interest rates.

''The idea Australian borrowers are far ahead of schedule is not really reflected for the average borrower. It's true that some borrowers are ahead of schedule, but not all borrowers,'' Mr Zanesi said.

The Reserve Bank has previously said the proportion of Australians paying their mortgage ahead of schedule was high ahead of other countries, but Mr Zanesi said his analysis suggested we were only slightly ahead of European nations.

The figures come amid a debate about just how indebted households really are.

Official figures show the ratio of debt to disposable income had risen to a three-year high of 148.8 per cent. Reserve governor Glenn Stevens last month said a further big rise would be a concern.

But banks and some analysts say this ratio overstates households' debt position because it does not take into account the role of mortgage offset accounts.

The Fitch report, the first of its kind, confirmed borrowers were indeed ahead, but found the size of voluntary repayments was ''surprisingly low.''

It also said high saving was not the main reason loans were being paid down quickly. Instead, it said the early repayment of debt had more to do with refinancing by borrowers and redraw products, which allow people to borrow more than they needed and treat their mortgage as a low-cost line of credit.

The report by Fitch is an attempt to collate industry-wide figures on a topic for which there is only infrequent data from the Reserve Bank.

Fitch collected the data from mortgages that had been issued by dozens of lenders and then sold to investors as mortgage-backed securities.